WHAT’S GOOD?*North Dakota leads all of NCAA in wins (10). Only one other school has more than 6 (Stephen F. Austin, 7).*UND’s attendance of 3,140 in the home opener (vs. NDSU) was the first-ever sellout for volleyball at The “Betty”.*Faith Dooley is the UND career record holder for blocks (535), breaking a 26-year-old record.*Sydney Griffin was named the MVP of the Glory Road Invitational with Alivia Fraase and Ashley Brueggeman joining her on the all-tournament team. *Fraase picked up Big Sky Defensive co-Player of the Week. *Dooley was named MVP of Ole Miss Rebel Invitational with Tamara Merseli and Jordan Vail joining her on the all-tourney team.*Sydney Griffin became the fifth UND player all-time to reach 3,000 career assists. *UND is off to its best start in its Division I era and the 4th-best start in UND history (17-1 in 2002, 16-1 in 1990, 14-1 in 2008). *North Dakota has won three five-set matches already this season. That’s good.*Griffin has 14 career matches with 50 or more assists. *Three different players have notched double-doubles this season (Merseli 5, Griffin 4, Dooley 1). *UND broke into the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll in the first rankings of the season (T15th), August 29th.

DID I HEAR A NINER IN THERE?North Dakota got out to a fast start to the season, playing 10 matches in the span of the first nine days. It involved matches in four states (Mississippi, Georgia, New Mexico, Texas). With Wednesday’s win over NDSU, UND’s 10 wins are the most in the NCAA, three more than any other school.

FORMIDABLE FOES FOR FIGHTING HAWKS IN FIRST FORTNIGHTThose 10 matches in the opening two weekends were against some top talent. Four of the first 10 opponents finished in the top 100 in last season’s RPI rankings. UNLV was 30, Georgia Tech 49, New Mexico State was 79th and Ole Miss ranked 95 in the RPI at the end of last year. North Dakota finished 92 in the final RPI rankings, second only to Northern Arizona (91) in the Big Sky Conference.

POLL POSITIONNorth Dakota made its first appearance in the VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll this week, entering tied for 15th. Now in its second season, the mid-major poll ranks those schools not among the power-five conferences (ACC, SEC, Pac-12, Big 10 or Big 12).

CHILLING WITH A 40North Dakota State mustered just 40 points combined in UND’s 25-18, 25-9, 25-13 sweep Wednesday at the Betty. It marked the fewest number of points scored by the Bison against North Dakota since the best-of-five series was universally adapted (1985). UND has now won six of the eight meetings between the schools in the Division I era.

ALL-TIME SERIES WITH GEORGE WASHINGTONThese teams have met just once, a 2014 meeting in Washington, D.C. It was the third match in the UND tenure of Mark Pryor. UND would win 26 matches that season to tie the school record.

ALL-TIME SERIES WITH APPALACHIAN STATEFriday will be the first-ever meeting between the schools.

ALL-TIME SERIES WITH SOUTH DAKOTA STATESouth Dakota State owns a 49-28 lead in the all-time series but the series in the Division I era belongs to UND (7-1). North Dakota has never lost to SDSU at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (3-0).

POWER TRIPNorth Dakota zapped another “Power 5 Conference” school (ACC, SEC, PAC-12, Big 10 or Big 12) with its 3-2 win over Ole Miss Aug. 25th. It was the second it less than a calendar year after last season’s 3-1 win over the ACC’s Clemson on 9/8/16. UND also defeated Mississippi State from the SEC back in 2014.

BECAUSE YOU GOT TO HAVE-A FAITHSenior Faith Dooley became the school’s all-time leader in career blocks, eclipsing the mark in the win over Louisiana Tech on Aug. 26, 2017. She surpassed Karla Danielson’s mark which had stood since 1991.

TOP TEN FOR DOOLEYFaith Dooley became just the 17th UND player all-time to reach 1,000 kills in her career and only the fifth to do so as a junior. She currently sits at 1,150 kills heading into the UND Classic, which puts her in ninth place all-time at UND.

MS. 3000Senior Sydney Griffin became just the fifth UND player to notch 3,000 career assists as UND lost to Georgia Tech, 3-0, on Aug. 27. Griffin reached the plateau in just two full seasons and a handful of matches (86 matches played). Next in her sights is fourth-place Lisa Luebke, who tallied 3,277 assists from 1989-92.

RECORD REWINDThe University of North Dakota volleyball program holds a 698-752-3 (.479) record all-time since the first match was played on Sept. 22, 1976.

PUTTING TEAMS TO BETTY BYENorth Dakota is 113-44 (.718) all-time at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, which opened prior to the 2004 season. Since 2008, UND is a staggering 91-18 (.833) including a school-record 13 wins in 2011. North Dakota is 46-10 (.818) at home the past four seasons.

WATCHBIGSKY.comLive video for all home and away football, volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball games are available free atWatchBigSky.com. The site and streams can be viewed on any computer or mobile device supporting HTML5. You can also download the Pluto TV app from your favorite app store or on Roku.

UND ON THE INTERNETUNDSports.com is the official online home of University of North Dakota athletics. UNDSports.com is a veritable one-stop shop for the most hard-core UND fan, featuring breaking news, feature stories, game notes, live and archived video webcasts, FREE audio, FREE live stats, podcasts, blogs, player profiles, merchandise, photo galleries, news feeds, camp registration and much, much more.

UND ON TVMidco Sports Network will televise three UND volleyball matches as part of its broadcast deal that includes football, men’s hockey, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. Fox Sports North will also pick up a handful of home matches, to be announced later.

UND ON RADIOThe UND Sports Home of Economy Radio Network will pick up six North Dakota volleyball home matches this season. They will air over 1440-AM KKXL in the Grand Forks area and will be streamed online at UNDsports.com. Paul Ralston will handle the play-by-play.

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